F. Scott Fitzgerald

Princeton University Library

F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896 - 1940

F. Scott Fitzgerald, novelist, short story writer and scenarist, died at his Hollywood home Dec. 21, 1940. His age was 44.

Mr. Fitzgerald in his life and writings epitomized "all the sad young men" of the post-war generation. With the skill of a reporter and ability of an artist he captured the essence of a period when flappers and gin and "the beautiful and the damned" were the symbols of the carefree madness of an age.

Roughly, his own career began and ended with the Nineteen Twenties. "This Side of Paradise," his first book, was published in the first year of that decade of skyscrapers and short skirts. Only six others came between it and his last, which, not without irony, he called "Taps at Reveille." That was published in 1935. Since then a few short stories, the script of a moving picture or two, were all that came from his typewriter. The promise of his brilliant career was never fulfilled.

Highlights From the Archives

Arts and Leisure Desk

It's one of those fantasies, I think, that Fitzgerald is a glamorous and romantic figure,'' said the author and film historian David Thomson, speaking of the Jazz Age legend F. Scott Fitzgerald. ''Not that I think in real life he was, but his life has come down to us that way. And Hollywood therefore feels that he ought to be graspable.''

August 21, 2005moviesNews

Editorial Desk

Gatsby's powerful ability to speak to our times is driven home by the latest issue of Book magazine, in which a panel of literary experts, asked to name the Top 100 fictional characters since 1900, decisively chose F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz-era rogue as No. 1.

April 7, 2002opinionEditorial

Book Review Desk

The Library of America has released F. Scott Fitzgerald's early novels and stories at a fitting moment. In the Internet Age, as in the Jazz Age, money grew so fast that the fig leaf of culture sometimes failed to cover it.

December 24, 2000artsReview

The Arts/Cultural Desk

When John Harbison began working on his third opera, ''The Great Gatsby,'' he faced a particular musical challenge that has stymied many opera composers before him. The iconic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, on which the opera is based, is set in the Jazz Age, the early 1920's. So the narrative is filled with popular songs, dance music and show tunes from the period.

December 20, 1999artsNews

Cultural Desk

Though F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway disagreed on practically everything, from their philosophy of life to their philosophy of art, the two men had more in common than they liked to admit. Both grew up in the Middle West, both became expatriates in Paris, both achieved early glittering success. Both wrote novels destined to become American classics, and both spent their last years in a sorry state of decline.